And Tales Build the Soul
by Raloire
Summary: A series of drabbles with varying pairings, and perhaps an AU here or there. Latest Drabble - Questioning
1. Hands

**Hands**

His (our) hands are cover in blood; they have been for hours now. The croatoan virus has already spread like wildfire and the screams from the streets can still be heard so clearly even though he's (they're) on one of the building's highest floors. It's almost as if humanity knows it's days are numbered now and they're all trying to protest to the heavens, as if God will hear them and cancel the plan he made so many millennia ago.

The demons however, are still the same, most of them enjoying humanity's despair, but they've served their purpose now and his (their) hands rip out their hearts and throats and tongues whilst burning them away from existence. Then he catches his (their) reflection in the window that shows the carnage below, and gently smiles while saying, "See Sam. This was always meant to happen. We are two parts of one whole."

Sam feels ecstatic, holy and complete and for the first time since he said "Yes", agrees.


	2. Books and Artifacts

**Books & Artifacts **

There are many artifacts inside Lucifer's Crypt and as old as she is the language is lost to her. Meg realises that they're in enochian many decades after last being there so while she helps spray sigils and the Angel Tablet is being recovered Meg wonders if Clarence would read any of it to her before he has to go. If only so he stays a little longer.


	3. Dream a Little Dream of

**Dream a little Dream of**

When he dreams of Jess, shortly after he arrives in a new town where they know him as Keith and not the apocalypse bringer, he's confused because he hasn't dreamt of her in years and she isn't burning.

She's just the same as before, beautiful and kind, becoming his rock again within minutes. She wants to know why he's running away, if he's scared and thinks hiding will help him, she says he's better than that but what _can _Jess know because she's been dead for years and it's all his fault and he's changed and he's so, so sorry.

Jess holds his hand and tells him simply that yes, if she had never met him she wouldn't have died, but there have been so many others tugging him and they're just as guilty. Jess blames his parents, his brother, the family business, the angels, the demons and finally Brady for introducing them.

Sam can't tell her how much he misses her, how much he loves her enough. How sorry he is.

So Jess holds him for the rest of the night even though he feels like he should be holding her. Protecting her from the dream world that might burn her again.

He doesn't because it feels impossibly safe.

* * *

When he wakes up he feels more well-rested than he has in years and cold.

* * *

"Say it again." Jess repeats as he kisses her temple.

"I love you," and he does, just as much as he did in 2005 and it seems to be one of the only things that hasn't changed.

Her fingers grip his skin tighter as if _he's _going to disappear soon, as if he'll never say those words again.

"Are you okay? Jess?"

She starts smiling again, "Yes, I just haven't heard those words in a long time."


	4. Envy

**Envy**

Hell is cold yet he is burning.

His flesh is ripped away little chunk by little chunk but he is never quite stripped to the bone like the others are. They are the lucky ones he thinks when he has time to process his thoughts in-between the pain and screaming. They get remade whole so they can be stripped down again, and he wonders if there are moments where they feel nothing at all. He hates them with every part of his soul, envies them.

Every single one of his nerves are in agony and only his eyes are left untouched, his eyelids were taken decades ago so he'd be forced to watch the process.

He is remade occasionally, in a sense. Clunks of meat are messily sewn into his flesh and bone and he is allowed to stand so he can appreciate every loose piece. He assumes that the blood is washed away with salt water or lemon juice but when he can see 'his' skin he sees patches that are to pale or just too different to be his and after a century of this process he feels dull surprise when it occurs to him that he really doesn't care if any of it belongs to him at all. That does not stop the pure disgust he feels whenever the less and less human, _thing_, shows in his reflection.

Though after a century he cannot remember his little girl that he condemned himself to hell for, nor find it within himself to care about anything but the thought of escaping his pain somehow, however Death is now an alien concept and he has no hope.

When he no longer understands the idea of time he sees a young man being offered a chance to get off the rack after his first day. The man refuses, choosing instead to cry out for his brother, and this baffles him. On the second day he is offered the same choice and the man still refuses and on the third, the fourth and so many days after. Sometime between the first and second decade he wonders if the man is real, perhaps this is another torture but eventually the man agrees and he is one of the first to suffer because of it.

He has seen others turned insider out and their souls twisted into a new beast and watched the sulphuric black smoke leave or fail screaming to a foreign god; he is afraid of becoming that but curious as to why he hasn't changed in such a way already.

He sees lights purer than anything he's ever seen before, the most terrifying and hopeful sight he's ever known of. He hears cries of demons, hears them say 'angels',hears them repeat it obsessively in frightened but awe filled voices. He hopes like every other soul that is still intact, despite the missing chunks and their dimming glows. For the first time in decades he prays and for the first time in his memory he thanks God for offering him salvation.

But they are not there for him; they have come to collect the protégé of _the _Torturer himself.

He does not understand but he is filled with rage and envy. His soul twists in a way it never has before and soon he is soaring for hells gates to walk the Earth again with cruel black eyes.


	5. Hide

**Hide**

He ducks behind the upturned desk to hide as the sound of heavy feet echo louder from the corridor and as he does so there's a small panicked squeak that comes from a student who hadn't been able to leave the building. Turning to them he raises a finger to his lips to remind them to keep quiet, the small student nods as their chest heaves out a little more with each breath and ah shit he can see the beginning of a panic attack. Maybe it's the blood covering most of his shirt and face causing it or maybe it's the monster slaughtering everyone one by one in the halls but he really cannot let this kid give away their location with an inconvenient meltdown.


	6. Neighbours

**Neighbours**

Becoming what she was, was a lot simpler than Marlene expected. Not that she has expected anything at first.

It'd been all 'positive thinking' and 'mental exercises' that her neighbour, Anna, had introduced. After all calling it Witchcraft was rather crude and how could you call it that anyway? A few good gardens here, a few promotions there, nothing harmful. Nice simple stuff.

Then the books were being brought out and they were collecting rabbits; killing cats for their bones, harvesting herbs for more advanced rituals. Pledging allegiance to the being responsible for their 'good luck'. But no harm, no foul. No harm, no foul. Four easy words to repeat over and over while avoiding the W-word. The group did the same, smiling and reaping their rewards.

Katy pushed them all over the edge. She started taking more books home, 'borrowed' more material, and wouldn't let anyone into her house until her ex-husband choked to death on maggots. They all knew what she'd done and Anna suggested they deal with her in a similar manner. Deal out the justice the law would never be able to give. To be honest Marlene wondered when exactly she should call the cops, as they collected their ingredients and got to work. She never had to of course; her old friend spat out razors until her throat was in shreds.

She locked herself in the bathroom when she heard the news, while she threw up her lunch and dealt with her unsteady breathing until she fell asleep by the door.

Waking up was a new start; she felt good, surprisingly enough. Katy deserved it, was what the group settled on after they'd cried their eyes out to the police officer when they told him through sobs how kind she'd been and how they'd oh so miss her. But she felt good, she felt righteous and powerful. After all it was her and her group who'd discovered this extraordinary power within themselves. Katy had used it for the wrong reasons, she deserved it.

Some nights she would have peculiar dreams. She'd wake in her room to screaming and Marlene would stumble out of bed, leaving her husband behind and walk to the stairs, lean over the banister to see whether or not someone had broken in and then try to find the source of the noise. She never would find them, the screams would surround her as if they were coiling around her. Until she'd feel sick and would throw up a bucket's worth of salt water and keep doing so until she felt empty or black goo dripped from her chin and joined the watery contents.

Some mornings she'd find water spilled all over the bathroom floor.

She was fine though, her garden was amazing, her book collection had never been so cultured before and her husband was 'expected' to gain a promotion in a week or two due to the latest employee having an unfortunate accident soon. The poor dear was going to swallow all of his teeth.

She was fine because she trusted her group. They wouldn't curse her after all. They were closer than family, what with this secret of theirs connecting them in ways nothing else could.

That night she leans too far over the banister and falls. Marlene's soul is already in hell while her neighbours cry their eyes out and talk about how kind she'd been.


	7. Pound of Flesh

**Pound of Flesh**

They know that they're at the right place when they find a pound of human flesh laid out on the kitchen counter next to a bowl and a row of neatly lined spices.


	8. Pain

**Pain**

Michael knows true pain when he loses against his younger brother.

Lucifer _doesn't _kill him. Instead he takes out _his grace _and makes him human. It's a spell on one of the scribe's tablets that the fallen angel had been hoarding for decades, maybe centuries, he'll never know.

And when he falls, all of his brothers and sisters do.

It hurts when his very being is changed but it hurts so much more to see their wings burn out in the sky.

The croatoan virus strikes shortly after and he knows that many of the fallen angels are dead now, he can't hear them anymore of course but sometimes stories will come his way.

Such as a woman named Raphael that leads, lead a surviving group that was very particular with who they chose, a bitter drunk had complained that he'd been turned away because 'he's not family'. Michael wonders whether they would've turned him away too, especially after he failed them.

This was never the plan, maybe this had been his father's plan but it'd never been _their _plan.

He was supposed to fight and kill his younger brother, if he failed then Heaven would lock their doors and deny Lucifer entry.

Not this.

For a fleeting moment he's glad that he left his vessel's soul in Heaven before the fight, who knows what would've happened to their soul otherwise.

Then he's angry because he was never supposed to use a replacement, he was meant to have the Righteous Man as his vessel and because he was impatient he's failed everything. His anger turns to malice that he gladly takes out on the croatoans.

All these emotions and regrets are just the beginning of his problems too, he needs to survive. To eat, to stay clean and to avoid the disease.

He lasts four years, before he's killed by _demons _of all things.


	9. Patio

**Patio**

After finally catching up with the werewolf, he shoots it dead on the patio; and then briefly wonders if he has enough time to clean the mess up as the lights turn on inside the house.


	10. Questioning

**Questioning **

Rescuing a Carver Edlund fan from ghosts and helping them back home didn't exactly turn out the way either of them expected it too.

The kid had been trying to hunt and held up okay for the most part, helping them back home was the challenging part.

They just kept on questioning them without pause, _'Are you and Cas a thing?', 'What happened to Adam?', 'Why don't you exorcise demons anymore? What about the people they're possessing? Don't they deserve to be saved too?'_

He just hoped that this kid's street was close so their little interrogation could come to an end.

God damn those books.


End file.
